The transition to a green economy will enable triple bottom line impacts – livelihoods creation with social equity and natural ecosystem protection. However, such a transition is riddled with obstacles. Breaking down the barriers and building a green economy which is equitable, resilient and sustainable; necessitates carefully designed policies, based on robust analysis and research.

DA aims to identify a comprehensive suite of enabling conditions and policy options to facilitate a transition towards a green and inclusive economy. It aims to generate policy influence by capturing best practices, through action based research and creation of partnerships (Green Economy Coalition, Independent Research Forum, UNEP-International Resource Panel). Such a practice-to-policy connect, helps in analysing challenges and opportunities; in specific green sectors such as agriculture, buildings, renewable energy, water and waste management etc., leading to multiplication and scaling out of replicable solutions.

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The scientific brief, “Decoupling Growth from Resource Consumption” by Development Alternatives submitted for the Global Sustainable Development Report sees decoupling as an instrumental ingredient for development processes ahead. It looks at the challenges and suggests core strategy to move forward with growth decoupling.

This report draws attention to the need to decouple natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth, and emphasises resource efficiency as a key strategy for creating a green economy. A conceptual description of decoupling is followed by an argument for a nexus approach, which gives a holistic understanding of trade-offs with respect to resource management choices thereby increasing productivity, efficiency and other gains manifold. Using the building sector in India as an example, the report then details out drivers for action.

India with its unprecedented movement towards economic growth and development has to incorporate a pathway that indicates an appropriate future for the country. These pathways are scenarios built to provide an insight to the future; however they need to be supported by informed and coherent policies, and rational systemic planning. There exist examples of possible solutions and strategies for helping India transition to a sustainable future. We however need to move to look at what can be done and how, going beyond what should be done. This policy brief attempts to identify means of implementation that can help overcome the barriers towards achieving a sustainable future.

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International NGO work is crucial in campaigns that mobilize citizens at the community and national levels. Currently, NGOs are critical contributors in global efforts to achieve the UNs Millennium Development Goals.